Santiago Varela (ESP) set the speed track for 69 starters in Friday's 1.45m with 20 clear rounds. Lorenzo de Luca and Egano van het Slogenhof were the winners in a blistering time of 64.72 seconds. Laura Chapot (USA) took second and third place honors, finishing second aboard her own and Mary Chapot's Thornhill Kate in 65.12 seconds, and placing third with her own and McLain Ward's Quointreau un Prince in a time of 65.41 seconds. Richie Moloney (IRL) and Equinimity LLC's Alsvid clocked in fourth in 65.73 seconds. De Luca also took fifth place honors aboard Stephex Stables' and his own Limestone Grey with a time of 65.78 seconds.

De Luca went 26th in the order aboard his first mount, Limestone Grey, a 10-year-old Irish Sport Horse gelding by Try-Time. His time with Limestone briefly held the lead, until Chapot and Quointreau un Prince came in 37th to take over. De Luca was not to be outdone, however, and returned three rounds later with Egano van het Slogenhof to reclaim his top spot. Chapot then jumped into second with Thornhill Kate, and Moloney jumped the fourth place time with Alsvid, pushing Limestone into fifth place overall.

Class winner Egano van het Slogenhof is a 12-year-old Belgian Warmblood gelding by Electro x Nagano. The horse showed successfully under Belgium's Gregory Wathelet until very recently when the horse flew to Florida and De Luca took over the ride. "Last week he jumped a couple of classes and today was already good," De Luca stated. "He is a very competitive horse; so sweet, so fast, so I am really happy to have him here."

De Luca has been riding for Stephex Stables since December 2014 and brought eight horses to compete for Stephex at this year's Winter Equestrian Festival. Speaking about his two rounds aboard Limestone and Egano, De Luca noted, "I tried a little bit with Limestone and then Laura Chapot went straight away into the lead. I know she is always really fast, so I tried again with Egano. Even if I do not know him that well, I know that he is really fast and smooth, and he jumped everything good. I am pleased about Limestone too. He jumped really well today. I have a few horses that are in really good shape, so I am happy about that."

Speaking about the difference between the two mounts, De Luca detailed, "Limestone is a really light horse. He is really, really careful. I have known him a little bit longer than Egano, so he is really easy. He is really elastic. I will try to build him in the bigger classes over the next few weeks and try to jump him in some grand prixs."

"Egano for me is a new horse," the rider continued. "I tried today to win, but of course he has already jumped a lot of big classes with some other riders. He has all the potential to do something bigger. I stay here until the end, so they are all going to have the chance to jump in bigger classes."

Speaking of his winning round and where he caught Chapot's time, De Luca added, "I think I made up time a little bit everywhere. The time was so quick and so careful. The last line I was quite close on the vertical, and then I kept going for the five (strides), and everything worked really well. He is a really nice horse. His brain is like a computer. He is a genius."

Also competing in the International Ring on Friday, Jorge Matte and Conquest topped the $2,5000 MAYBACH - ICONS OF LUXURY Power & Speed. The $6,000 Illustrated Properties 1.40m Speed Challenge was held in the afternoon in a California Split with 113 entries in total. Georgina Bloomberg and Gotham Enterprizes' South Street were the winners of Section A with the fastest time overall. Alex Granato and Paige Tredennick's Carlchen W topped Section B with the second fastest round.